Resourcing communities to create a healthier more sustainable future

More evidence that we are being manipulated into eating the wrong thing. “What do we do when the products of our genius and our industry short-circuit our evolved traits and lead us down a path of destruction?”

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Human ingenuity has combined fats and carbohydrates to produce such crowning culinary glories as the doughnut, fettuccine Alfredo, nachos and chocolate cake with buttercream frosting. These delectables do not exist in nature. Nor does the human capacity to intuit their calorie content.

I’ve been a fan of Neti Pot’s for some time. Being a Master Gardener I’m exposed to a lot of pollen, dust, etc. and was taking an antihistamine daily when a friend recommended a neti pot. Amazing. So I love this article.

Using herbs with your neti pot is great for those funky, dry late-winter months, a time when cold and flu season seems to be over, and yet you find yourself still blowing your nose, over and over. You might be a bit unsure about whether you are dealing with allergies, or the last cold of the season to kick your butt.

We love trees here at Pasadena Learning Gardens and aspire to help the amazing urban forest we reside in. Stress from drought has weakened many trees making them more vulnerable to disease and insects. Here is a wonderful summary of the issues and it would be great if people replied with stories of both the victims and trees that are thriving in this situation.

I don’t think it will come as a surprise to hear that our landscapes, especially here in Southern California, need to change. We’ve offered some guidance on our Sustainability page, but this project is about identifying the best drought tolerant plants for these future landscapes. Best is always a tricky word. I’m looking for attractive, easy to grow and propagate, drought tolerant plants that may even offer some medicinal benefits and / or have a great story attached. After identifying these 6-12 plants, I intend to put in a collection from which cuttings can be taken at the Altadena Community Garden, the La Casita community center, and the Hathaway Sycamores Learning Garden, and get this propagation going along with classes on how to do it yourself. Let me know what your candidates are.

I love White Sage and need to have it but have not be great at propagating it, so here…

For years now I often find myself quoting David Brooks book The Social Animal where he summarizes the argument that we are profoundly interconnected as “We learn best from those we love” It seems more and more clear that we can impart emotional intelligence into our youth when we need it as much as ever… As a meditating Buddhist-Christian-Gardener, I’ve witnessed peoples healing and transformation when connected to nature and one another. I’ve danced around this fire for many years and now we are coming at this from so many angles. I am so excited by what I’ve learned from Daniel Siegel who runs the center for mindfulness studies at UCLA Medical School. He has profound data showing that we can transform our youth through a simple mindfulness exercise. Here is a great intro to his thought.